Special Operations Troops Top Casualty List as U.S. Relies More on Elite Forces | The New York Times

By nearly every measure, Chief Petty Officer William Ryan Owens was exceptional. Chief Owens, 36, who was killed by enemy fire during a raid in Yemen last week, was a team leader in the Navy’s most elite commando force, SEAL Team 6, and had earned numerous awards for heroism under fire during a dozen deployments.

He was, one former SEAL Team 6 official said, “a blooming star.”

But on a moonless night when gunfire erupted as he approached a suspected terrorist compound, hitting him in the chest, he joined a group in which he was suddenly more typical.